Orissa gives green signal for Vedanta's expansion plans

The Orissa government Tuesday gave the green signal for capacity expansion of Vedanta Aluminium's alumina refinery at Lanjigarh to 6 million tonnes per annum, besides an increase in the throughput of its Jharsuguda smelter to 1.6 mtpa, an official source said.

The company will invest Rs 37,440 crore in the two projects, the source said.

The approval was given at a meeting of the State Level Single Window Authority (SLSWA) chaired by Chief Secretary T K Mishra here.

The approval will now be referred to the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, said a senior official of the industries department.

VAL, which operates a 1-mtpa capacity alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, in Kalahandi district, proposed to expand the plant to 6 mtpa, he said.

This apart, VAL's proposal to expand its smelter plant at Jharsuguda from 0.25 mtpa to 1.6 mtpa also received the SLSWA's nod.

The company's proposal to expand its captive power plant from 650 MW to 1350 MW was also cleared by the SLSWA.

The SLSWA also cleared a proposal from Hindalco to expand its smelter capacity from 1.6 mtpa to 3.6 mtpa and its captive power plant from 367 MW to 967 MW at an investment of Rs 4,430 crore.

In addition, the SLSWA gave clearance to seven other mega-projects, including a proposal from Rohit Ferro Tech to manufacture stainless steel.

Rohit Ferro Tech, which has been manufacturing 1 lakh tonnes of ferro alloys at its Kalinga Nagar plant, proposed to establish facilities to produce 6 lakh tonnes of stainless steel at an investment of Rs 2,100 crore.

Other proposals which got SLSWA's nod included the Bhushan Steels' Small and Medium Industries park at Dhenkanal with an investment of Rs 3,000 crore, Ramakrushna Power Limited's 120-MW capacity power project with an investment of Rs 525 crore, SPI Port's 1,320-MW power plant with an investment of Rs 6,609 crore and two other power plants.